Colorado's count moves: Jeff Hurd takes the lead in the 3rd District, the AP calls Amendment 81 defeated, and the graduated income tax still leads without a call

The 3rd District changed leaders on Wednesday. Democrat Dwayne Romero led Representative Jeff Hurd on Wednesday morning by about 3,500 votes. Ballot drops through the day reversed it: the Pueblo Chieftain put Hurd ahead by 0.66 points after 304,369 votes counted as of 3:30 p.m. on November 4, and Colorado Public Radio put the lead at about 1,200 votes, or 0.4 percent, after the overnight drops. Colorado orders an automatic recount when a margin is at or below 0.5 percent of the leader's vote total, and this race sits on that line. Pueblo County said about 2,000 ballots remain there, and its next update is not expected until November 13.

The other two districts did not move enough to call. In the 4th, Democrat Eileen Laubacher leads Representative Lauren Boebert 49.2 percent to 47.7 percent, about 5,400 votes, with the race still too early to call. In the 5th, Democrat Jessica Killin leads Representative Jeff Crank 133,070 votes to 119,689, 50.9 percent to 45.8 percent, in the secretary of state's count as of 3:15 p.m. on November 4, reported by the Monument Independent. The district sits entirely in El Paso County, and no news organization had projected a winner on Wednesday afternoon.

The measures produced the day's one new call. The Associated Press projected on Wednesday afternoon that Amendment 81, which would have required local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, has failed, with 1,256,176 votes against and 1,034,337 for, as of November 4. As a constitutional amendment it needed 55 percent in favor. That makes four of the 14 measures called, after Proposition 133 and Proposition NN passed and Amendment 84 failed in the morning calls.

Amendment 87, the graduated income tax, still leads without a call. The AP count put it at 1,153,585 votes in favor and 1,128,675 against, too early to call, and the secretary of state's count had it at about 50.4 percent in favor on Wednesday afternoon. It needs only a simple majority, because it repeals constitutional language rather than adding it. Proposition 134, designating school sports by biological sex, stood at 53 percent in favor in the secretary of state's 4:30 p.m. count, and Proposition 135, banning gender related surgery for minors, at 52 percent in favor, both uncalled as of November 4.